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Friday, 15 April 2011

Spring Minestrone Soup - No Croutons Required

I love a bloggers challenge which fits perfectly into my lifestyle, something that's not so much a challenge as a happy coincident as I'm cooking it anyway, so when I finally decided that April would be the month that I join the brilliant No Croutons Required challenge, hosted by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes, it was with a flash of brilliance that I realised the theme for me was kismet...

... I mean, for a start I should have been doing this challenge a long time ago... firstly it's a very long running challenge, already in it's third year, which is a good enough reason to jump on the bandwagon... secondly I love making soup, always have, it's been a basic staple that my friends know me for... always reliable that Dom should make a big bowl of tasty soup...

... this month, the challenge was based on old NCR themes from our birthday months over the past 3 years. Mine being September I got Mediterranean Soup and, finally getting to my point, as it happens I had bought all the ingredients for a Minestrone... genius!

Spring Minestrone

I've made this a little fresher and more Spring-like by including some lovely freshly frozen peas but really you can put in whatever you like, veg that are in season is good, as long as there's lots of them, minestrone means 'the one with many ingredients' so go crazy!

if you can make this in the morning and then serve it in the evening you'll have more flavour in the soup on that second re-heat.

- couldn't be simpler really... in a big heavy pan saute the onions then garlic, celery and carrots until tender, then add the rest of the veg except for the peas and cabbage and sweat with the lid on for 5-8 minutes)

- add the tomatoes, then the stock and finally the pasta, peas and cabbage and let it simmer gently for 20 minutes.

Dom, this looks delicious! We eat soup year around--sometimes, in the summer, it's a cold soup. In fact, my very first cold soup was at a Polish restaurant in London. It was a Polish-style borzst (oh, heck--I can't spell it correctly) that had been chilled and sour cream whisked in turning it a lovely shade of deep pink. Thanks for the recipe for this soup and the memories.

Dom, the minestrone looks so hearty and comforting. It's been rather chilly in the north east the past couple of days and if the weather stays like this on the weekend, I think it's time for a bowl of soup like this. Have a great weekend.

Made your soup today to pass around to my church folk ... oh, and my brothers, who are blowing into the grey cottage tomorrow afternoon for a quick lunch visit ... doubled the recipe! So delish! I have more of my spiral bread so it's alllll good! Thanks, pal! X

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Welcome to my blog

My name is Dominic, I am a cook, food writer and creative event producer. I write the food blog Belleau Kitchen and also write a monthly recipe column for Lincolnshire Life Magazine and Good Taste Magazine. I also run creative event production company The Persuaders, producing global events for brands since 1997. I am based both in the small village of Belleau in Lincolnshire and the smaller village of London!